bike culture blogged

Long ago the mountain bike evolved from balloon tire bicycles into capable offroad machines. Or perhaps Gary Fisher invented them (but many people don’t believe in Creationism). Anyways, they started out as balloon tire bikes that got multiple gears and better brakes. The innovators borrowed brake levers and handlebars from motorcycles so that they had enough braking power on those long descents. And thus mountain bikers had flat bars, whereas those dorky roadies had dropbars. That was the nature of mountainbikes, as God intended.

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As you can see in this thread on SeattleCyclocross.com - Redline Bicycles does a lot more for racing than send Byron out on a proto single speed cross bike. A Seattle area Junior and 2007 national champion Logan Owen had his fleet of bikes stolen from his garage this weekend. Keep an eye out for these smallish bikes for sale:

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(Photo Credit Matt Morrisson)
Sunday was beautiful. It hasn’t rained in a few days - so where did all that damn mud come from?

Byron and I made it out to race the single-speed category and proved quite definitively that we are road racers (and not so hot in the slop). No barriers on this course, but plenty of obstacles. A 400m mud slog was the toughest test in the course keeping lap times quite slow. A race that is typically 45 minutes took 60.

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Cargo bikes. They’re a big hit with huggers, and there’s been an industry buzz for them for the past couple years. You know, they’re supposed to allow a cyclist to do carry heavy loads, reduce dependency on the auto, cut down greenhouse gas emissions, allow people in Third World regions to be bring goods to market… maybe even save baby fur seals. But what are they, and do you actually need one?

In Part 1, I first want to tackle the taxonomy of cargo bikes. Right here I’m going to name these bikes so that everyone understands what we’re talking about, before anyone else decides that he’s got a catchy name for something that has existed for decades. And believe me when I say that there is no revolutionary developments in cargo bikes; it’s just the refinement of details that make these new bikes better, more capable, and/or cooler. As such, there are names that are commonly used to describe the different forms of cargo bikes; I didn’t invent any of them. You may have heard of them, or not. Nevertheless, you should adhere to the names I shall now give as if I were Moses descending from the mountain and these monikers inscribed on a fucking stone tablet.

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Huggacast 73 (available in high quality) features video from the Seattle Cyclocross race at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds. Andrew and I raced single speeds. As I learned, on a single speed, it’s all about pedaling and technique. I wasn’t fast, but I think rode a good race. Steady, no crashes, and making room for those in contention.